The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-11-29
RATTLESNAKES.
What Old Simon Kent Knows
About Them.
friends OF His, But Not to BE Trusted-His
Eleven-Year-Old Pet-What They Will
Eat and the Fatality of
Their Bite.

s'Yes," said Simon Kent, the ssrattle-
snake king" of Clinton County. whose
home is near the headquarters OF
Paddy's Run, in this township, 81
think know a few things about rat
tlesnakes. ought to. I've lived next
door neighbor to them for forty years.
They're friends of mine, but Iwouldn't
trust one of them single second if he
was in reach of me-
Kent and sixteen-year-old son live
alone in the woods. The father is a
man of intelligence, but spends most of
his time in capturing rattlesnakes.
which are abundant in his locality.
He has sometimes as many as two
hundred of these venomous reptiles in
captivity at one time. He supplies
side-shows and museums with live rat
ters, and he has quite trade in tanned
rattlesnake skins, which are used ex-
tensively by manufacturers of fancy
articles. He also sells large quantities
Of rattlesnake oil. faith in its efficacy as
. liniment being general throughout
this part Of Pennsylvania
'I've got q rattlesnake at home, "
continued the rattlesnake king. "thst I
have had for eleven years. I raised
him from the time he was three inches
hong, and think the world of him, but
he's got his fangs in. and 1 know that
he would just as leave sock them into
me as into any thing else. call him
licodemus. / have learned q good
deal about rattlesnakes in my long ex-
perience with them, but I have dis
covered more things about them
through Nicodemus than in any other
way. Among other things, I have
found that the rattlesnake changes its
skin twice year-in July and Septem-
ber-and that if they can't get to water
while they're shedding their skin it
will come off slowly and in pieces, in
stead of peeling off in one whole piece
from head to tail. But I've never
caught onto just how they get the skin
of. I've gone to bed at night and left
Nicodemus without his showing any
more sign of peeling himself than if
he'd been stick of wood, but in the
morning his old clothes would be lying
in one corner of the cage, and he would
be as bright as an old-fashioned patch
work quilt in his new ones.
sit is the general impression that
when rattlesnake is shedding his skin
he gets blind. There is no mistake
that his eyes do get covered with a
film at that time. but just put a mouse
In mis- cage and see how quick he'll coil
up and send for it, and hit it in the
neck every time. A rattlesnake al
ways strikes for the neck, and he al
ways strikes his prey before he eats it;
but You may fill his cage with rats, or
mice, or frogs, or any thing else he
likes. and he'll never touch one of them
unless he's hungry. He kills only
enough for one meal, and when that is
swallowed any thing and every thing
that's left can crawl over him, jump on
him and tumble him around as much
as it pleases and he'll never say boo
The rattlesnake is not a wanton de-
stroyer, nor is he .glutton. Two
mice will make him an ample meal.
had my pet rattlesnake ten months be-
fore he ate mouthful or drank drop
OF any thing. A rattlesnake has been
known to remain fourteen months in
captivity without eating or drinking,
and then all of a sudden begin to find
his appetite. When / put Nicodemus
in his cage at the age of ten months
put young dove in with him. Now
there isn't any thing on the earth or in
the air that's rattlesnake won't kill and
eat if he's hungry, and"
Except bats, pop" interrupted the
rattlesnake kings sunburned boy.
''Oh, yes, except bats" assented the
king. 81 put a bat in NirodAnans'